112 Years Prior
"Are you sure about this, Koushi?"
Suga looked away from the gardens and up to his King. "I'm sure."
"It will be a lonely path," the King warned. "Possibly unbearably so."
Suga smiled a touch wistfully. "If it becomes too bad, I can always just reverse the magic and start aging again."
"And what about the Kingdom?" The King sat down beside him. "Just my forty years of ruling has been stressful enough. Are you sure you're up for the task?"
Suga nodded, putting his hand over his heart where the mark laid. "If I wasn't, then Spades would not still hold me worthy. I'm ready for whatever life may bring."
The King sighed heavily. "How do you always sounds so sure? You make me feel younger than I am while still looking the same age as my grandson."
Suga touched the King's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "It's my magic that makes me sure. It tells me there's still more left for me to do."
The King hummed. "Our Jack told me his replacement is almost fully trained and the new Ace just started his missions. With me retiring, soon you'll be the only one left from our generation."
"And I will treasure all of you forever," Suga told him sincerely. "I'll never let the Kingdom forget any of you."
"Suga," the King said softly. "We're not the ones I'm worried about."
ooooooo
Suga thought it was rather remarkable how some things changed over a hundred years while others stayed exactly the same.
The people, Suga's noticed, are always changing. Each one as different and as new as the year they were born into. Sure, certain similarities always remained-family characteristics or just simple human nature-but the essence of the person was always slightly altered. Suga honestly didn't think he could stand it any other way. If he was constantly surrounded by ghosts of the past without any memory of their shared experiences. But, new people...new people meant constantly getting the chance to learn, having a new chance to discover this person who lived in the land that Suga held so dearly.
Flowers, on the other hand, rarely differed.
The palace garden may now have a slightly different layout than it did a century ago-there were different plants, trees that had started as sprigs now stood tall and mighty. But unlike people, gardens always followed the same pattern. Suga knew that without fail spring would bring new life, summer would keep it, and then fall and winter would finally brush it away and ready the ground to start anew. There was something soothing about having a single pattern as unchanged as Suga himself.
"Enjoying the weather," a warm voice asked from behind him.
Suga smiled, not bothering to turn around but moving over on the garden bench so his visitor could join him. "Just looking at how the new flowers have grown. They seem bigger than they were last year. I'm surprised the gardeners didn't plant rose bushes like last year."
Or had that been ten years ago? Suga supposed it didn't really matter.
Daichi hummed slightly, taking the offered seat. Suga glanced over to see that he was still in his training clothes from that morning.
"How are the new knights doing," Suga asked.
Daichi rolled his eyes fondly. "Well, I'm pretty sure that after training Tanaka, I'm ready for anything that these rookies can throw at me." He smiled as Suga let out a light laugh. "But, yeah, there a good group. Going to make good knights one day."
Suga bumped his shoulder amicably. "All in having a good captain, I suppose."
"Well, I guess I might be doing something right if you're letting me stay, Your Highness," Daichi ventured, the light of the sun making his eyes glow a warm golden brown.
Suga quirked a lip up. "Stop being bashful. You're the best Knight's Captain Spades has had in ages."
"Only because we have the best kingdom to defend," Daichi replied without missing a beat, meeting and keeping Suga's gaze. "The best Suit."
Suga looked down, breaking eye contact.
Talking with Daichi was...well, Suga always liked to think of it as a bit of a dance. There was a constant balance to it, a symmetry that relied on both partners knowing their steps by heart and keeping a constant pull and push that never quite tipped one way or the other. Do it too long and the effect could be dizzying; but, during the moment, everything just seemed...wonderful.
Suga knew that Daichi believed himself in love with Suga. And that was...well, that would be impossible so there was really no use in thinking about what that was. Daichi was young, handsome, brave, and with a prestigious job as Knight's Captain that would make him popular with any person who he'd chose to pursue. In contrast, Suga was fully dedicated to Spades, would never be able to give anyone as much attention as his country, and there was the not so little matter that he was over five times Daichi's age.
All in all, the situation was impossible so Suga refused to dwell on it.
(He failed at that more often then he was willing to admit.)
"What brought you out to the garden's today," Suga prompted, not quite ready to let the dance end. "Just here to see the flowers?"
Daichi hummed again, neither disagreeing or agreeing. Instead, he tilted his head down, meeting Suga's eyes again with the same gentle intensity.
"I just thought the garden looked particularly beautiful today," Daichi said softly, still looking at Suga rather than the flowers.
Suga smiled lightly back and tried to pretend his chest didn't feel a bit too warm and a bit too tight.
ooooooo
Oikawa decided to take the long way back to the inn and try to think of some excuse to tell Irihata about his "interesting" trip to the castle.
Hey, Irihata, good news: the census numbers are approved so the new taxes should be fine. Oh, by the way, remember how you told me to be polite?...Well, that didn't go so well and I ended up basically telling the Ace-you know one of the most dangerous men in the world, leader of our country-to fuck off. So, I'll probably just go be exiled now. Make sure Takeru waters my plants. See you never!
Yeah, that probably wouldn't go over too well. Shit, and he was almost at his inn, too.
Maybe Oikawa was overreacting. Maybe this kind of thing happened all the time and the Ace had already forgotten what one annoying commoner thought.
"Yeah," Oikawa muttered sarcastically. "Because I've always been so lucky."
Well, who knows maybe he'd be attacked and killed by bandits on the way back and not have to tell Irihata anything. That would be swell!
"Hey, Pretty Boy!"
Oikawa looked up and groaned. He had been joking about the bandits! Joking!
In front of Oikawa stood four heavily scarred and even more heavily armed burly men and absolutely none of them looked like they wanted to be Oikawa's new friend. Oikawa briefly took time to curse the castle's-probably reasonable but right now extremely annoying-no weapons policy as it meant he was unarmed with his knife was still back at the inn.
"Um, hey, guys!" Oikawa called back cheerfully. "Thanks for the compliment but you're really not my type. Always more fish in the sea though, right!"
The apparent leader of the group didn't look amused. "Hand over your money."
Oikawa gave them a disbelieving look and pulling at his threadbare tunic. "Do I really look like the type to have money? This is basically a rag by now."
The leader gave him a flat look. "No, but you do look like a small town messenger, who was sent to the palace. Villages always give your type a bit of cash for the road. So, hand it over."
Cursing under his breath, Oikawa fished in his back pocket for the bit Irihata had given him to get a horse for the way back. At least, the inn was already paid for.
He threw it at the leader, who caught it easily with his free hand.
"Much obliged," the leader responded before turning back to the group. "Kill him."
Oikawa's breath caught.
"I gave you the money," he yelled out as the men approached. "If it gets out you're killing people anyway, it would be terrible for business."
The leader shrugged. "Sure if it gets out. I don't think that's going to be much of a problem with you."
Watching four burly armed men approach him, Oikawa evaluated his options. He was a good fighter, possibly even a really good fighter. But, even Oikawa wasn't arrogant enough to think he could take on four experienced armed men without even a knife.
So, running. Maybe if he could catch them off guard, he could slip through in the confusion and give himself a chance.
Not giving himself time to think about why this was a terrible plan, Oikawa ran quickly at the thug in the front.
The man's eyes widened in shock and he clumsily swung his sword at Oikawa. Oikawa ducked under it easily hitting his arm with his left hand and punching the thug in the face with the right. He felt a crunch as the nose broke under his hand.
One down, Oikawa thought, not pausing before jumping over the unconscious body and sprinting to an alley. If he could just be fast enough, he had a chance.
Oikawa tripped over a loose cobblestone.
He fell, hitting his knee on the way down and his arm on a nearby wall.
He moaned, looking up to the thugs who had by now caught up with him while he was laying helpless on the ground.
In the part of Oikawa's mind that wasn't going Oh, Shit!, he dully thought that this was too much of a coincidence. This had to be Ushijima fault. Though, armed thugs didn't really seem like the Fate's style and Oikawa didn't think that Ushijima wanted him to die by bandits. But then again, Ushijima wasn't exactly human and might not have the best concepts of danger.
"You're going to die now, Pretty Boy," the thug on the left said, holding back his sword
Or maybe…oh, shit, what if this was it? Maybe he had finally pissed off the Fate enough that he had just decided to murder Oikawa and find a new King.
Oikawa had one second to breathe in before the sword was swinging down and-
Was caught by another sword and flung back just as a person shaped blur hit into the second thug, knocking him back from Oikawa.
Not one to let an opportunity slip by, Oikawa quickly regained his footing and stepped away from the wall and back into open, maneuverable space.
The man with the sword still seemed to be processing why Oikawa wasn't dead or impaled yet so Oikawa took that moment to kick out, catching him in the stomach and knocking him back.
In less immediate danger, Oikawa surveyed the surroundings, throwing his head back to thank this savier.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Oikawa yelled instead.
The Ace of Hearts glared back from where he was fighting the second bandit.
"Saving your life apparently," the Ace snapped, finally knocking his opponents sword away and slicing into his ribs. His opponent dead, the Ace stalked back to Oikawa. "What? Couldn't even make it back to your inn before pissing someone else off!"
"They started it!" Oikawa defended loudly before a glint caught his eye and Oikawa hit the ground, throwing his arms over his head.
The thug leader's thrown knife passed over his head by inches, slicing through his shirt sleeve before embedding in the wall behind him.
Oikawa cursed, reaching behind him to grab the knife and turning back to the Ace. "And if you're supposed to be saving my life, you're doing a shitty job!"
The Ace rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, maybe you couldn't have taken on an entire gang."
The two stopped talking after that as the leader of the gang was now rushing them and the man that Oikawa kicked had recovered enough to brandish a sword at Oikawa.
"I hate this city," Oikawa muttered, before parrying the thug's sword with his small throwing knife.
Focusing on the fight, Oikawa noticed that the man was bigger and stronger than him but he was pretty sure the thug was also slower. Oikawa bent out of the way of his opponent's next thrust, curving his back so the sword passed harmlessly in front of him. Still, bringing a knife to a sword fight was really not the best strategy though Oikawa supposed he'd had worse-take five minutes ago for instance.
With the thug's next slash, Oikawa stepped to the left-to the outside of his opponent's arm and where his side would be unprotected. Oikawa jabbed the knife in a feint towards the thug's ribs, causing the man to quickly backup and sweep back wildly with his sword.
Oikawa had been expecting this and ducked the sing, slashing the thug's wrist when it came close enough.
The man yelled, grabbing at his bleeding wrist as the sword clanked to the ground. Oikawa didn't give him a chance to recover before plunging the knife hard at the thug's neck.
The man fell over dead before he had a chance to figure out what happened.
Breathing out slowly, Oikawa turned back to see how the Ace was fairing with the leader.
The Ace was currently passively wiping his sword on the body of the leader, who by the looks of it had at least been dead for at least a minute.
Oikawa glared. "You could have helped me, you know!"
The Ace looked up at Oikawa before slowly directing his gaze down at the dead man with Oikawa's knife still stuck in his neck.
"You seem like you had it covered," the Ace responded flatly. Something seemed to catch his sight then and the Ace's eyes widened, mouth dropping open.
Oikawa found he didn't really care.
"Oh, and what if I hadn't had it covered," Oikawa asked angrily, gesturing wildly. "So, what, 'oh look, poor little Oikawa, dead in the street because the Ace couldn't be bothered to-"
"You're the King," the Ace interrupted, pointing his finger at Oikawa.
Slowly, Oikawa followed the finger's path back to Oikawa's own hand. His uncovered hand. Where the thrown knife had, unnoticed, sliced through both his sleeve and the bandages to reveal a very familiar plain red heart.
Oikawa swallowed, looking back up at the Ace.
"So," Oikawa started. "I don't suppose we can just forget this ever happened, right?"
ooooooo
A dark shadow stalked the King of Diamonds.
Unaware of his silent voyeur, King Kozume Kenma walked quietly through the castle on his usual nightly walk to his private chambers.
The shadow followed, creeping like a hidden predator waiting for the chance to strike foolish prey.
Kenma continued onward-past the kitchen bustling with servants, past the library where the Queen and the Jack could be heard arguing, past even the Knight's quarters where dozens of the kingdom's warriors could be readied at a notice. Passing all those, the King entered his own private quarters where he could retire completely alone for the night.
The shadow waited, watching.
Running a hand through his hair, Kenma frowned and glanced around the room.
The shadow remained unseen.
Kenma turned back to his desk, grabbing a book from the top. He slowly made his way to the room's balcony where no sound but the night air could be heard.
The shadow readied itself.
Kenma leaned against the balcony, opening the book to the latest bookmark.
Above him, the shadow moved and-
"Shouyou, I wish you'd quit doing that," the King commented mildly.
Hinata dropped down, flipping quietly from the roof.
"Aww, Kenma, how'd you know I was there," Hinata pouted, slipping the mask off his face. "I could have sworn you didn't see me."
A small smile passed over the normally passive King and he set aside the book. "I didn't, but I knew you were coming. This is the first chance I've been alone since you arrived in the city, so I figured you'd try to surprise me."
Hinata scrunched up his face. "Am I that obvious?"
"Only to those who know you," Kenma reassured, stepping back to the room. "Come back inside before someone sees you."
The Ace smiled, following the King of Diamonds back inside before flopping back on the King's plushy bed.
"Ughhh, Kenma, I haven't been able to find anything," Hinata complained, staring up at the ceiling.
Kenma came to sit beside him. "Well, you've only been here a day. I'm sure there's still time."
Hinata winced, feeling slightly guilty. "Umm, three days actually. I just only checked in at the palace today."
Kenma hummed lightly. "I did wonder why you took longer this time."
"I just wanted a chance to search for the guys before their faces hit the guard patrol," Hinata explained. "You know they'll disappear once they realize someone's on to them."
"I suppose there's no real reason for Kuroo to set up a search then," Kenma commented idly.
"No, no, the search is still definitely an awesome idea," Hinata responded, not wanting Kenma to think he had just waited their time. "Tsuki says that since the flyers only mention the murder of the merchant, the guys we're after will assume we don't know about the Marks or anything."
Kenma tilted his head, considering. "That's true, I guess."
Hinata breathed out in relief. "I'm just so annoyed that I haven't found anything yet. I thought for sure they'd come through here."
"They might have taken the river," Kenma suggested. "They'd still have to stop here briefly, but if they had a hose prepared it shouldn't have taken long."
"Or they could not be going to Hyakuzawa at all," Hinata muttered, "And we're stuck with another dead end."
Kenma paused, before looking down at Hinata with an expression of mild curiosity. "If you had found them, what would you have done, by the way?"
"Followed them," Hinata answered immediately. "Found out where they were from and tried to see who was behind it."
"What about delivering the letters to the other Suits," Kenma asked.
"Oh," Hinata said, seeing where Kenma was going. "I'd have doubled back after I saw where they were from and delivered the letters on my way back from Spades. You know I'd still be able to deliver them before people started to worry."
Kenma inclined his head, acknowledging the point.
The two friends sat in silence for a moment, both lost in their own thoughts.
"Who do you thinks behind it," Hinata finally asked, breaking the silence.
Kenma waited a moment, thinking through his words.
"Hyakuzawa's the most obvious choice," Kenma finally concluded. "The King has eleven other siblings and only one son, so there's no shortage of people vying for the throne. It would make sense that one of them would try to seek a Kingship elsewhere." Kenma paused a moment. "Though, at the same time, Hyakuzawa's current alliance with Cards doesn't show much friendship between our country and their's. With the animosity towards Cards plus having to be one King of four rather a lone King, it's likely they'd view King of Hearts as a step down from the Hyakuzawa throne." Kenma looked down at Hinata. "I doubt any Hyakuzawan noble that believe they have a legitimate shot at ruling Hyakuzawa would try for Hearts."
"That still leaves a lot of nobles though," Hinata commented.
Kenma nodded.
"Ughh," Hinata groaned. "I should get back out there and see if I can find anything before I have to leave for Hearts."
"Careful," Kenma warned softly. "Kuroo likes to patrol around now. It would be awkward if he saw the Ace of Spades at the same time Hinata the courier just happens to stay at the castle."
Hinata grimaced before nodding.
He stepped back on the balcony. "Hey, Kenma, if I actually do find anything to follow, cover for me when I'm not in the guestroom tomorrow."
Kenma nodded. "I'll tell them you decided to leave for Hearts early."
"You're the best!" Hinata grinned .He reached out to give Kenma a quick hug that the other man allowed even if not reciprocating.
"Stay safe, Shouyou," Kenma told him.
"Always do," Hinata responded even though it was definitely a lie.
With that the Ace of Spades slipped his mask back on and jumped, catching the roof ledge and swinging himself back up into the night. Unlike the gently slopes of the Spade's palace, the Diamond's castle was all spires that were as sharp as the mark that gave the Suit their name, making it nearly impossible for all but the most balanced person to walk across them without slipping. Hinata didn't have much trouble.
He winced, thinking about the first time he tried to walk the roofs of Diamonds. It was right around the time where Takeda had first given him missions and it had rained the day before making the roofs extra slippy. Hinata...might have slipped and tumbled down the roof until he landed hard on a balcony….the King of Diamond's balcony.
On the bright side, it was how he had become friends with Kenma and the young monarch had promised him he would keep his secret even from the rest of the Diamond Suit so Hinata guessed it worked out alright. Still, he was never telling Tsuki about that particular part of the mission. The blond would never let it down.
Hinata went into a controlled slide down another spire, using the momentum to flip gracefully to the next roof. Kenma had said that the Ace of Diamonds liked to patrol around now so Hinata would have to take the long way out of the castle to avoid getting caught.
If there was any Suit member that the Ace of Spades had a healthy fear of running into, it was Kuroo Tetsuro-the Ace of Diamonds. It wasn't that Hinata was scared of the Ace or thought he would try to hurt him or anything. He'd talked to him enough as Hinata the courier to know that despite the perpetual smirk, Kuroo was a pretty nice guy. It was the Ace of Diamond's power that made Hinata wary.
As the legend told, every Ace had one small extra skill-new to every generation and every Suit. Supposedly, the skill was originally given to the Aces so they'd have a better chance of creating peace during the Card Kingdom's tumultuous beginnings. Hinata kept his skill a closely guarded secret-only trusting the small number of people who knew about both of his identities.
The Ace of Diamond, like the rest of the Aces, didn't much stock in hiding his ability and used it regularly. And that would be fine if he had another ability like the Ace of Heart's strength and healing or really even the Ace of Club's one second precognition. But, the Ace of Diamond's ability was one that Hinata really, really wanted to avoid-Strength and Weakness Assessment.
For a spy and assassin who guarded every small bit of identifying information as a risk to discovery, the fact that Kuroo could-with just a look-have a general overview of his body's strengths and weaknesses was terrifying.
Luckily, the Ace of Diamonds had never actually seen the Ace of Spades-though not for lack of trying. And, as for the courier Hinata, Kenma had once confided in him that Kuroo's ability only worked during a fight or when that person had the intention of starting a fight. As long as Hinata kept himself relaxed and not battle ready around Kuroo-which after years and years of constant vigilance, really wasn't that easy-then the Ace of Diamond's wouldn't be able to read a thing.
On the roof, Hinata spotted the Ace of Diamond's familiar messy hair from the next walkway and quickly jumped over to a roof in the opposite direction. Hinata crouched down, making sure there wasn't even a chance he could be seen within the cover of shadows. On the adjacent walkway, Kuroo continued on unaware.
Hinata breathed out in relief, pausing on the roof and letting his black uniform blend into the tile while he took a second to readjust his center of gravity and plot another path-this time without running into Kuroo.
A movement a few spires over caught Hinata's eyes and the spy glanced up, keeping his own motions small and unnoticeable.
Someone...someone else was on top of the spires of Diamonds. Hinata tilted his head curiously, watching the all black figure trip briefly and right themselves as they eased over to the next roof.
Well, thought Hinata. That's certainly suspicious.
Searching through the town would have to wait; mysterious figure sneaking across roofs-that wasn't Hinata-definitely took precedence.
Careful not be seen himself, Hinata slipped off his own roof and to the next roof in the direction the figure was heading.
Whoever the figure was, they were obviously less experienced in traversing the castle spires, barely catching themselves a number of times as they crossed between roofs. Hinata kept one roof behind them, trying gauge where they were heading based on his knowledge of the castle interior.
Finally, the figure climbed to one of the most narrow roof's of the castle and one that Hinata had no trouble identifying-the Ace of Diamond's private quarters.
With a grace that made Hinata believe they were a professional, the figure dropped from the roof and slid into the narrow solitary window. Hinata watched from outside, putting the pieces together in his head.
The Ace of Diamond's was out on a routine patrol and wouldn't be expected back until later in the night. The rest of the guards staff was on duty but it was the shift directly after dinner, where the guards were still jovial and easily distracted. If Hinata was planning a time to break into the Ace's private chambers, this would be it.
Roughly ten minutes passed before the figure eased back out of the window, balancing on the window ledge while shutting the window behind them. The figure swung back up to the roof, tripped and slid back down a foot or so, before finally righting themselves and crouching down.
Hinata peered intently into the dark as the figure slipped a sheet of paper into their shirt, the fabric securing it against their chest.
With that, the figure began moving quickly, sliding from roof to roof while Hinata continued to follow. This time, instead of moving inward to the center of the castle, the figure seemed to be heading to the castle edges.
Hinata watched as the figure finally reached the palace wall and turned down the other side to climb to the forest bellow. Hinata jumped and landed on the wall a bit further down-in the shadow of a guard tower-and started his own climb down the tower.
Once on the ground and still unaware of his trail, the figure sprinted into the trees-all but disappearing into the thick forest growth. Hinata would have laughed if it wouldn't give him away. It would take more than a dark forest and speed to lose him.
Swinging through the tree branches rather than following by ground, Hinata trailed the figure through the forest until they finally emerged by a small stream with a wagon next to it.
"Finally," a man by the wagon announced with a thick Hyakuzawan accent. "I can't believe it took you so long to grab one single paper."
"Oh, I'm sorry," the figure responded, harshly pulling off his mask to reveal sandy hair and a sharp face. "Why don't next time you climb the towers that the thieves call the Death by Diamonds. I almost fell five times. It's a fifty foot drop!"
The other man rolled his eyes. "Did you get the plans or not."
The sandy haired man glared, pulling out the paper Hinata had seen earlier out from his top. "Of course, I got it. Wouldn't bother coming back otherwise."
"Good," the other replied shortly. "Then let's get out of this backwards fucking country before anyone realizes it's gone."
"Don't worry. With the amount of paper in that office, they won't realize it's missing for at least a month," sandy haired man reassured. "I'd reckon more."
"Just get in the wagon and pretend to be a good little traveling merchant before you jinx us," the other answered, already moving to the front of the wagon.
"Yeah, yeah," sandy haired man waved him off, pulling back the back flap to the wagon and slipping inside.
Crap, thought Hinata. If he didn't move quick, they'd be gone before he got a chance to see what the paper was.
Hinata slipped out a short knife from his suit and aimed it at the wagon wheel. A small but powerful flick of his wrist and the knife sailed through the air, cutting through one of the wheel prongs.
A second later, the driver pulled on the horses reins and the wagon moved into action-unknowingly putting pressure on the bad wheel, which broke only a few rotations in. The wagon lurched forward unbalanced and the driver quickly pulled the cart to a stop.
"What's going on," the sandy haired man yelled from inside the wagon.
"The fucking wheel broke," the driver cursed. "Grab the extra from the back and help me change this thing."
That had gone even better than Hinata hoped. The spy flipped quietly down from the tree, easing his way around to the unmanned side of the wagon before darting into the back flap.
Inside, the wagon looked like an ordinary merchant supplier. Hinata paused briefly, trying to guess where the sandy haired man had put the parchment.
He was in luck. The sandy haired man obviously hadn't had time to hide it yet and the paper laid abandoned on one of the grain barrels. Hinata quietly bent over to unroll it, mindful to listen for the two men working outside.
Hinata looked down, curious to see what the thieves had thought was important enough to steal.
Shit, Hinata mentally cursed for the second time in a span of days. A basic defense layout for Diamond's palace. No wonder the two were eager to get out of town. Having this would mean an immediate execution.
Hinata bit his lip, thinking. There was no way he could let the thieves have this. Not only would Kenma kill him, but the entirety of Diamonds would be put at risk. At the same time, it would be much better if the thieves never knew about Hinata's involvement which would be basically impossible if he took the plans.
Moving quickly, Hinata took out a spare sheet of parchment that he kept in his uniform just for situations like this. He laid the blank paper next to the Diamond defense plans and pulled out another knife, carefully cutting his parchment until the two were roughly the same size.
Now, came the harder part. Everyone technically had the ability to do magic but few actually had the talent to do it well-Mages, of course, practically in a field of their own. Magic...wasn't exactly Hinata's strong suit. As in, Suga still gave him pained looks whenever the younger even so much as mentioned the word. But, still, Hinata thought he knew enough for a basic copying spell.
As Suga had explained it, magic came down to three parts: feeling, thinking, and pushing. Tsuki always got the thinking part right but never the feeling so his spells always fizzled out as soon as he tried them. Hinata, on the other hand, only got half way through the thinking before pushing way too hard which tended to end in explosions. Suga had one time joked that together they'd make an acceptable magician. But, as magi was generally a one person task, the two ended up being rather atrocious.
All of this meant that Hinata was working extra hard on thinking through the simple spell so he didn't accidentally catch the entire wagon on fire. It helped some that what Hinata wanted to do was, in theory, even more simple than a copying spell. A copying spell would mean that Hinata needed to think hard about the image he wanted to copy, feel for the new parchment, and then push the magic until the image appeared on the new paper. With the spell Hinata wanted to try, he didn't even need the exact image. In fact, he was trying to create an imperfect replica-with skewed calculations and wrong troop numbers.
Hinata closed his eyes and pushed. Don't catch on fire. Please, don't catch on fire.
He paused and didn't feel at a sudden burst of flame. He inched his eyes open.
In front of him, laid a copy of what at first glance looked to be a copy of Diamond's defenses but when examined closer, had none of Diamond's actual strategies. Of course, the fake would be obvious when inspected by a trained Mage but Hinata figured for a couple of thieves, it was good enough.
Also, by the slight sheen on the paper, Hinata might have accidentally made it fireproof. Oops.
Just then, the wagon tilted back and Hinata heard a cry of success from the men outside.
Time to leave, Hinata thought, grabbing the original defense plan and slipping out the back of the wagon before either thief could notice he was there. Hinata ducked into some underbrush beside the clearing and watched as the thieves resettled and finally the carriage pulled away down an old dirt path.
Hinata breathed out. Okay, first things first. He took out the defense pages and-with a quick apology to Kenma-ripped them into as small of pieces as he could and proceeded to throw them into the stream. As he watched the water rinse the ink from the paper, Hinata hoped that the King of Diamonds would understand that the paper was better destroyed than to possibly fall into the wrong hands of where Hinata would be going.
Speaking of going, he stepped out and looked into the direction of where the wagon had pulled off.
Now for the cool part, Hinata smiled. The Ace of Spades may not have something well known like strength or precognition and Hinata might be biased, but the spy personally thought that his power was the coolest. Definitely, the most useful.
Hinata closed his eyes, reaching for that specific feeling somewhere in his core-the same place that always looked at Spade's palace and thought immediately home or that looked at the people and thought protect, the same place where Hinata felt the Ace of Spades rather than just having some mark on his arm.
When Hinata opened his eyes again, the whole world had sharpened and slowed. The Ace glanced around and saw the forest down to the minute detail. Individual leaves swayed gently in an almost unnoticeable breeze. The stream cut and whirled together like an ever moving kaleidoscope. In the air, the moon reflected off dragonfly wings shining like rainbows. Shifting his focus to the road, Hinata saw the wagon weaving through the forest about half a mile down.
Shaking out his legs from crouching, Hinata readied himself and...ran. A few seconds later, Hinata easily caught up to the wagon-slowing down to match their pace through the cover of the forest.
And, yeah, maybe, enhanced speed and vision didn't sound like the coolest power-and really, even at full speed, Hinata was only slightly faster than a horse-but there was absolutely nothing like running full pace and feeling the wind blow back his hair or looking out from a tall tower and being able to see everything for miles. Plus, it made him an excellent courier.
Grinning from beneath his mask, Hinata settled himself in for a long journey-sending a brief mental thank you to Kenma for covering for him in Diamonds.
It was time for Hinata to find out who was pulling the threads.